Joel Silver mines in Venice, Calif.

Producer buys former U.S. Post Office for new Silver Pictures space

Joel Silver has purchased the former U.S. Post Office in Venice, Calif. to serve as the new home for Silver Pictures.

Silver has been based at Warner Bros. in Burbank for than two decades but the studio ended his deal this summer. He has since signed an output deal with Universal.

The post office is known as the Windward Circle facility, built in 1939 as part of the Federal Works Progress Administration.

It will serve as the new home of Silver Pictures once restoration and renovation work have been completed in 2014.

“As a longtime preservationist of architecture, I’m thrilled to move forward with the restoration and renovation of the former Venice Post Office,” said Silver. “While we are still in the very early stages of the process, I am committed to the rehabilitation of the building and its unique WPA features and the restoration of the treasured Edward Biberman ‘Story of Venice’ mural.”

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa applauded the movr.

“This is a great example of adaptive reuse at its best,” he said. “Silver Pictures relocation from Burbank to the City of Los Angeles will create new jobs, bolster our local economy and demonstrate that Los Angeles continues to be the capital of the entertainment world.”

In 1984, Silver purchased Hollywood’s historic Storer House, originally built by Frank Lloyd Wright. The restoration was supervised by Wright’s grandson Eric Lloyd Wright and Martin Eli Weil, past president of the Los Angeles Conservancy.